free advice

Have a happy weekend :)

(via Wit+Delight)

freedom

Cause I need freedom now

And I need to know how

To live my life as it's meant to be                                                                                                         ....Mumford & Sons

                                                                                                                          Nice song for a Friday, don't you think? xx

"badass bridge of the day"

The Moses Bridge, in where else….the Netherlands.  How cool!

(via The Daily What)

day-maker

(Via Coco + Kelly)

happy weekend ♥

I want to try to make mine just like this. Just sayin….

Hope your weekend is everything you need it to be ♥

(via Absolutely Beautiful Things)

new york i love you

My coworker/friend shared this video by Andrew Clancy with me this morning.  Wasn't expecting the morning tear(s)…but it made me feel so good and proud to live here in New York City. 

♥

(I wish life had a soundtrack, don’t you?— makes everything better :) 

rolling with the punches

It's quiet obvious, no?, that I haven't been writing as much lately as I'd like to (I am sorry, I have missed you!).  I could blame the circumstantial things for gradually pulling me out of the loop (moving apartments being a biggie!), or perhaps it's a classic case of emotions and moods changing, well, just because.  I've kind of been laying low but have recently been thinking about change.  Like the seasons, our thoughts, opinions, beliefs and feelings can change without us even noticing it….until of course we reach that point where we begin to gain perspective on how life has evolved in the past months.  That's the crazy thing about change: you never see it happen until you're already there.  One of my favorite Virginia Woolf quotes echoes a similar sentiment about how memories, like change, quietly develop over time: "I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time.  It expands later, and thus we don't have complete emotions about the present, only about the past."  I'll stop myself here and acknowledge the possible contradiction between this idea and the one I mentioned late last week (see below….eek, I really haven't been posting enough, eh?).  Those moments that Christopher Isherwood is talking about, however, I consider to be extremely rare and beautiful but extremely fleeting.  We've all had those moments before, when for even the tiniest fraction of a second we are inhabited by the most calming sense of clarity, where feel like we're the kings (and queens) of the world and that everything is, as he says, "exactly the way it was meant to be."  

Those are my favorite moments and while I wish I could experience them more, would I be able to recognize that magical feeling of peace and understanding as being something so uniquely special?  Would I be able to make the same mistakes that ultimately are meant to make me wiser?  Having the noise and confusion is in some ways necessary I think, and something I've been coming to accept, largely because it adds balance to the well-lived life.  I know I'm throwing around a lot of quotes here but I just can't resist this one because it is the PERFECT explanation for why our feelings and actions and thoughts fluctuate the way they do….here it is: "there are years that ask questions and years that answer" (thank you, Maya Angelou).  But really, isn't that just it?  That, to me, that is more calming than any scientific or religious explanation for why we are the way we are (at least on an emotional and intellectual level).  Maya Angelou's words make me feel free to be myself (wahooooo!), and to accept the questions just as much as I accept the answers in my life.

So on a slightly related and a bit more upbeat note, I've been re-reading Garance's blog like it's the bible today.  I just love that French girl meets American chic curiosity and honesty she divulges on her blog.  She's funny as hell for one, and her humility and day to day musings are literally one of my biggest pick-me-uppers.  I wish I could find a way to tell her but her writing and observations make me feel extremely human.  Don't you love when you feel like someone is mimicking those thoughts and feelings of yours that you could never explain nearly as eloquently and as poignant as that person? Yeah, that's her!  Garance, can we be best friends?  You too will want to be hers when you read her blog.

Anyways, to circle back…..ohhhhhh, what is it I'm trying to get out today?  I guess I just wanted to check in and acknowledge this idea (something somewhat short of one of Oprah's "Ah-Ha!" moments), that it truly is the best to go with the changes, not against them.  In a year of questions, those uncertainties and changes inevitably end up being our answers.  Isn't it a good feeling to let yourself surrender to that idea?  We need not be so hard on ourselves.  Less pressure, more enjoyment.  And I whole heartedly believe (at least today, HA!) that with a keen sense of awareness, the ability to trust and an eternal curiosity, answers will come....

(photo via wit + delight)